Highland Hero Read Free Page A

was threatening enough to make any grown man hesitate. Although the animal was nothing much to look at, he was well trained and a good protector for his mistress. That alone made him a worthy animal. Lucais idly wondered how easy it would be to win the dog’s trust. He suspected he could never pull the animal from Edina’s side, but he might be able to woo the animal just enough to get him to stop threatening him. He allowed Gar to sniff his hand, then cautiously patted the animal, inwardly pleased with that small sign of progress.
    “Ye had best break your fast,” he told Edina, ignoring her look of suspicion and the way she pulled her dog a little closer to her side. “There is some rabbit left. We must ride for Dunmor soon.”
    Edina frowned as he walked away, his two young cousins following him as he strode into the surrounding forest. For a moment she was surprised to be left alone with their horses and goods, then shook her head and went to eat some food. She might not be able to see Lucais and his cousins, but she was certain at least one of them was watching her closely. Instinct told her that Lucais was beginning to trust her, to believe that she sought only to protect the baby, but he did not trust her enough to leave her completely unguarded.
    As she struggled to eat and keep Malcolm’s little fingers away from the fire, her food, and the wineskin, she tried to plan what she would do when she reached Dunmor. If she could not yet trust Lucais, she certainly could not trust any of his people. That meant that she would have to keep Malcolm with her at all times. She tried not to think about the possibility that Lucais was Malcolm’s true enemy, that she was blinded by her own attraction to the man. If Lucais was the enemy, she was riding into the very heart of his camp, and there was little chance that she would be able to save Malcolm.
     
    Edina blinked and shook her head, only faintly aware of Lucais’s soft laughter tickling her ear. He had insisted that she and Malcolm sit in front of him when she had started to grow sleepy. Such closeness had distracted her only briefly, for she had been too tired to dwell on it for long. Now, however, as she woke up, she was acutely aware of how she was tucked up between his long, strong legs, her back warmed by his broad chest, and how his muscular arms encircled her as if in an embrace. She rubbed her hand over Malcolm’s back, trying to cleanse her mind of disturbing thoughts about Lucais’s embraces with thoughts of tending to Malcolm.
    “There lies Dunmor,” Lucais announced, giving in to the urge to touch his lips to her soft hair, finding it as silky as he had imagined it would be.
    A small chill of alarm slipped down Edina’s spine as she looked at his keep. It was set upon a stony rise, giving it a clear view of the surrounding lands. To the north was a tiny village, and hearty Highland cattle grazed contentedly in the fields surrounding the castle’s thick walls. It was a strong keep and, she thought with an inner sigh as they rode through the big, iron-studded gates, a rich one. It was one thing to think that a man was out of her reach, it was quite another to see the proof of that in one huge pile of stone.
    The way the people of Dunmor boisterously welcomed Lucais and his cousins, and their elation over Malcolm’s good health, made Edina further question her suspicions about Lucais. The people would do what their laird told them to, but she knew he could never make them all pretend to be happy. As they dismounted in the heart of the crowd, Edina clung to Malcolm and struggled to regain some sense of belonging with the child, some sense of her right to be there. Her eyes told her that Malcolm would have all she had lacked as a child—love, ready ears for his questions, stories, and even his complaints, and ready arms to hold him close and soothe his hurts and fears. He might not be completely safe, however, she told herself, and soon felt a little